Kids these days need to walk

If you drive around the Capital Region during the week, lately you’ve inevitably been trapped behind a school bus making its daily run.

We hear often about schools, such as the Rensselaer city school district, cutting back on bus routes to save money, yet plenty of suburban and rural communities have their buses stopping almost as often as the mail truck.

While the presence of sidewalks, and the safety of area roads, play a role in who gets house-to-house pickup versus corner or end-of-the street pickup, Peter Mannella, executive director at the New York Association for Pupil Transportation says “community culture” can play an even larger role in the transportation situation.

For example: Several years ago, Bethlehem tried spacing out its stops, says Mannella. The parents were unhappy, expressed as much and, within three days, the routes were back to their original frequency.

“You can say ‘We are going to save $100,000 by not stopping at every house,’ but moms and dads don’t want their kids walking,” Mannella says. As you’d expect, this is especially true in bad weather or during winter, when the daylight hours are so short students will be walking in the dark. As a student in the 1980s and 1990s, we walked to our stops. In elementary school, the neighborhood wait-spot was a good quarter mile away at the Sutherlands’ house. Parents didn’t make a fuss, and no child was injured. In fact, the walking was good — it woke us up each morning. Not to mention, the sense of community that came with hanging out together each morning waiting for bus No. 23 to roll up and cart us all off to school.

Plus, you never had to play the “did I, or didn’t I” game when it came to questioning whether you missed the bus. If the only thing remaining on the Sutherlands’ driveway was an acorn-toting squirrel, then you knew the bus had left without you.

Thing is, a lot has changed since the 1980s. Too many people are texting and driving, making them as dangerous on the roads as drunken drivers. And, with reduced work forces at many companies, parents often work longer hours, meaning they aren’t around to escort their kids to and from stops like many moms and dads did when we Gen Xers were growing up.

So, while it’s tempting to yell through the window “will you just walk 100 feet to your stop?” I can understand why parents concerned about the safety of their children are passionate about this issue, so I’ll give them an understanding pass on not wanting their children — some as young as 5 — to traipse a mile each way to get to and from school.

I can’t agree with the complaints of having kids walk to a community neighborhood stop, though.

If you worry they’re going to be cold, get them a hat. If you fear they may miss the bus, send them out the door five minutes earlier. And if walking in the dark on February afternoon is a concern, the Dollar Store sells flashlights — and extra batteries.

We survived without sitting in our parents’ house — or, on truly frigid days, in their car — and so will they.

I, and other commuters, may have our frustrations answered soon, as schools boards take an even deeper look at their budgets.

“While only four cents out of the dollar we spend on our schools goes to transportation, everywhere they can save, they are going to save,” says Mannella. “And if corner stops can save a couple of bucks, you are going to see more of that.”

65 Responses

Elmer – First of all, I said many, not most. There’s a big difference there. Secondly, how would you know?! Abuse is not something that is usually discussed outside of close family and/or friends, if it is even discussed at all. And nothing I said was an insult to “true” victims. I would never do that especially considering I am a survivor myself.

I don’t agree with students being picked up at their houses (obviously there are exceptions). I feel bus stops should be at the end of streets and in a fairly central location for multiple students. I don’t like it when a bus stops at every single street to pick up 1 student at each stop, especially when these streets are very close together. However, I would not be comfortable with my children walking almost a mile to the bus stop until they are older, probably in high school. Even then, I probably wouldn’t want them walking alone. Thankfully, that most likely won’t be an issue where I live.

While I agree with Erin that playing the kids card doesn’t automatically win an argument, it does carry some weight. You can form all the opinions you want about something but until you actually experience it, you have no idea how you would think, feel, react, etc.

I agree that crossing busy streets is not something we want our children doing. Walking to the neighborhood bus stop though, should be a normal practice.

How many of you have heard the old saying, “when I was a kid we had to walk uphill, both ways!” Today it’s “I had to walk out of my house”. It is ridiculous. There is no one saying that you cannot walk with your child to the bus stop and wait with them.

I am aggrevated by the constant stopping of buses at every single street corner in my neighborhood. For the love of all that is good -not to mention the environment and the not-so-mysterious childhood obesity issues -walk a mile! It’s good for you!

One of the many reasons children are growing up to be lazy and feel entitled. What I don’t understand is how my generation grew up to be overbearing, nuerotic, helicopter parents. Of course the kids should be walking.

Just a guess, but a big part of door-to-door bus service is probably an effort on the school district’s part to limit their liability. All it takes is one expensive lawyer after something — anything — happens to a child after they’re dropped off a half mile from their house, and the district is looking at a much bigger bill than the $100,000 transportation cost savings.

I live on a dead-end street that is very short (perhaps 8 houses long!), and the children in question are at least 10 years old (meaning, they know better than to dash out into the street!) – yet their parents still insist on driving them to the end of the street and sitting with them in their cars until the bus comes – on sunny, rainy, hot, or cold days. And when I say “parents”, I am referring to 3 different cars with 3 different sets of children that I drive by, every day.

my main problem is with the parents that drive their kids 20 feet to the bus stop and let them watch TV in the car while they are waiting for the bus. when i was growing up, i walked nearly a mile to and from school everyday from 1st grade and on. some of my favorite memories from growing up are the fun times all the kids in the neighborhood and i would have on the walks to school.

Are you driving around various neighborhoods that this is seriously bothering you? The only time i come across it is when i’m on the busy roads where it is justifiably required (as you mention in your blog).

On the flip side, early this morning I was doing my routine walk and a little off schedule because of the rain, when I passed a bus stop where there are routinely a cluster of kids and a smattering of parents, and the school bus was just leaving. And 15 seconds later, a second school bus came along and stopped at the same bus stop. I figured out that this must be because of the charter schools. Wonderful. Not only do we have to pay for a duplicate school system, but we also have to pay for double (or maybe triple) school bus service on top of it. Somehow, would somebody please inject some sanity into this system?